1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer having a plurality of data input ports (hereinafter, referred to as DIPs) and being capable of printing out information input through each DIP.
2. Description of the Related Art
A high-speed type printer is usually equipped with a plurality of DIPs, and is capable of printing out information input through each DIP. Accordingly, such a printer can be shared by different administrative departments, so as to curtail costs and save space for installation thereof, etc.
Such a printer as described above is usually equipped with a plurality of paper cassettes; information is printed out on paper fed from each paper cassette. More specifically, information input through each DIP is printed out on paper fed from a paper cassette which is selected either arbitrarily or according to the size of the paper stored therein. In other words, in printing out information, the paper within a paper cassette is used without specifying which DIP the information derives from.
As a result, it is impossible to separately determine the amount of paper used for printing out information input through each DIP. This results in a problem that, in the case where several administrative departments share a printer, the amount of paper used by each department cannot be determined, making it impossible to accurately split costs among the administrative departments in proportion to the amount of paper used by each administrative department.